[Sust-mar] The Environment and the Federal Election - Vote Smart

[Christopher Majka]

Hi folks,

We are at a point in time where there are crucial environmental  
challenges - in both Canada and the world - that require immediate,  
clear-sighted, and far-reaching action. Stephen Harper's Conservative  
government has manifestly failed in in this regard. Examining just at  
the issue of climate change, Vote for Climate, [ http:///www.voteforclimate.ca 
  ] points out that the Conservatives have:

1) Indicated to the world that Canada would not attempt to meet its  
greenhouse gas reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol (November  
2006);

2) Killed the Clean Air and Climate Change Act, despite its complete  
support from the opposition parties, leaving Canada without emission  
reduction policies after a full year in office (fall 2007);

3) Undermined attempts at agreement on binding emission reduction  
targets at the Commonwealth Summit in Uganda and the UN Climate  
Conference in Indonesia (Nov-Dec 2007);

4) Announced a climate change plan with "aspirational" emission  
reduction targets - which will allow Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions  
to continue to rise (March 2008);

5) Refused to publicize important Health Canada reports on the impacts  
of climate change - reports produced by our own government, with our  
tax dollars. The authors have criticised the government's year long  
delay of the report's release, and the cancellation of a planned  
national tour to promote its findings.

The Sierra Club of Canada recently gave the Conservative government an  
F+ in its Climate Change Report Card:

http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/vote-canada/2008/voters-guide-climate-crisis-election.pdf

The Conservative government of Stephen Harper has been able to stymie  
all of these important initiatives on the environment and climate  
change despite the fact that only 38% of the Canadian population  
support them, while 62% of Canadians - almost 2/3 of the population,  
oppose their policies. How is this possible? Vote for the Environment,  
[ http://www.voteforenvironment.ca ] points out that, under the  
present system of vote splitting, if the federal election were held  
today the results (in terms of the allocation of Parliamentary seats)  
would be: Conservative: 147, Liberal: 76, NDP: 34, Green: 0, Bloc: 49,  
Independent: 2 - another Conservative minority government.

If Canadian were to "vote smart" (i.e. allocate votes to the  
candidates best positioned to defeat the Conservatives), the seat  
allocation would be: Conservative: 97, Liberal: 109, NDP: 46, Green:  
1, Bloc: 53, Independent: 2 - an end to Conservative rule. Vote for  
the Environment's superb website [ http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/ ]  
makes this readily possible by indicating, riding-by-riding across the  
country, which candidate is best positioned to do so.

Almost 90,000 people have visited the site since it launched six days  
ago. Join them and help elect a government that devotes serious,  
constructive, and progressive attention to our environment. Our  
environment deserves our support.

Best wishes,

Christopher Majka
Halifax, NS
c.majka at ns.sympatico.ca